Moray Firth

[Andy MacBog]

Dear Peeps,

 

I have moved away from my beloved Aberdeenshire coast to "near" Inverness and was planning on fishing the Moray Firth as a local mark to fill an evening.

 

Having now fished several locations from S of Cromarty, round to Sandend, I have not had much luck, aside from a few flatties and coddies on rag, lug, mackerel and/or crab.

 

Is it just too shallow for much to appear there? Some say all the seals and dolphins have cleared it out but surely they would not stay unless there was a good supply of fish?

 

I have also read a good scientific article on the distribution of cartliaginous fish around the BI and it reckons on smoothhounds and thornbacks being present in good numbers. I have not been there in the right season but has anyone else had any luck in locating these species there?

 

It looks like a good stretch of water, although shallow (up to about 5 m) and I have one last "deep hole" to try (from the shore) before I consign myself to the occasional weekday evening just bashing flatties.

 

Thanks for any pointers that any of you may have,

 

Andy

[spanner]

Andy,

 

From what I hear the Moray Firth is not much cop these days, though there are some decent flatties and a few bass further along. Most people I speak to head west or south for decent fish! I agree though, there are enough dolphins etc in the Firth that should mean a good stock of decent fish or else they wouldn't be there. And I'd certainly blame man before dolphins on any shortage!

 

Never heard of smuts up there, very interesting though. Is that paper available on the net?

[Andy MacBog]

Hi Spanner!

 

You're quick off the mark .... !

 

The paper is here http://journal.nafo.int/35/ellis/ellis-main.html

 

and if you go to here http://journal.nafo.int/list.html you will see that there are loads of interesting things to read!

 

Agree with your comments on the Firth .... it'll do for an evening's bash I suppose but I'll not be wasting any more weekends and peeler crabs on it! Nearly blanked there once already .... thank God for Rockling!

 

Andy

[maximo]

how big a sretch of water is the moray firth ,what kind of coastline has it .

i may fish something similar and a lot of people head straight for deeper water when most times its the shallower bits that fish better.

or maybe it is just poor fishing.

[The Big Man]

Have you tried the north side around Balintore and Tarbet Ness there used to be cod and lythe off the rocky marks.

 

The Big Man

[Andy MacBog]

Thanks Maximo,

 

It is a fairly mixed coastline - short cliffs and gentle slopes leading onto shallow, gently sloping beaches, with a mix of sand and rock becoming muddy further out.

 

Have tried Tarbet Ness once but seem to have hit a shallow rock shelf in the couple of hours that I had there. I'll give Balintore a shot and try NE of Portmahumock too, which I hear fishes quite well (from the staff in the tackle shop in Inverness).

 

Thanks for the input folks,

 

Andy